


Manipulation

by 00AwkwardPenguin00



Series: Dragon of the Yuyan [27]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Episode: s02e14 City of Walls and Secrets, Fake dating for infiltration purposes, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Gen, I swear the Zutara is only like 30 seconds and neither characters are happy about it, ONCE AGAIN: FAKE DATING AU, cause this is it, someone want to come up with an ATLA version of James Bond?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:33:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27309961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/00AwkwardPenguin00/pseuds/00AwkwardPenguin00
Summary: A party. For abear.Zuko knows that the Yuyan are experts of infiltration and espionage, but this was NOT what he'd had in mind.
Relationships: Aang & Toph Beifong & Katara & Sokka & Zuko, FAKE DATING AU - Relationship, Katara/Zuko (Avatar) (FAKE), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Dragon of the Yuyan [27]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1582384
Comments: 169
Kudos: 1963
Collections: Finished111





	Manipulation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MuffinLance](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MuffinLance/gifts).



> FOR ANYONE WHO MISSED IT: THIS SERIES IS STILL GEN, AND WILL REMAIN SO. The Zutara in this installment is for plot purposes ONLY.
> 
> I'm really sorry, I just couldn't resist.

The plan's simple: Zuko, Katara, and Toph will infiltrate the banquet as guests, and let Sokka and Aang in the back way as busboys. Once they're all inside, they'll wait for the Earth King to make his appearance, and then Aang will approach and use his status as the Avatar to secure a personal audience, neatly sidestepping the ridiculous Ba Sing Se bureaucracy.

The main drawback to the plan is that Zuko and Katara are going to have to pose as a couple. Zuko loves Katara as a person, as a member of his squad and family, but the idea of _dating_ her, even for a mission, feels _intensely_ weird.

Katara herself is nearly as weirded out as he is, but she's willing to hear Toph out, while a sour-looking Aang sits on Sokka and holds his mouth shut with both hands.

"Two girls by themselves would never be allowed inside without an escort, even if we say that our families are waiting for us," Toph explains with an annoyed twist of her mouth. "We have to have a guy with us who can pose as our escort. I'm too young, but it wouldn't be weird for a dating couple to be accompanied by someone younger to act as a chaperone. Katara can pull off high society manners with a bit of training, and Zuko's got his princely education to fall back on. Yeah, it'll be awkward for everyone, but at least we'll have a chance of pulling it off."

Sokka pushes Aang off and whirls on Zuko. He doesn't even have a chance to open his mouth before Katara snaps, "Don't even think about it, Sokka. Zuko is a perfect gentleman and you know it."

_**I'm as freaked out about this as you are, and it's kind of insulting that you would assume that I'd take advantage of Katara when we all know that she can drown me before I get within grabbing distance,**_ Zuko snaps out at the other boy with a glower.

"See?" Katara says smugly, smirking at her brother. Sokka just huffs and goes to sulk in a corner.

Katara drags Zuko and Toph out clothes shopping, which is absolutely the single most boring thing Zuko has ever done in his _life_. He ends up resorting to performing passive observation on the other shoppers to keep himself sane. Toph seems more interested in ordering the poor shop workers around, but Katara keeps her somewhat reigned in, and in the end they all _(finally)_ head back to the guest house with appropriate formalwear and accessories. Once Zuko has bathed and wrestled his hair into some semblance of neatness, the girls kick him out of the bathroom and he finishes getting ready in the bedroom he’s sharing with Sokka and Aang.

Aang seems to have forgiven him for whatever Zuko had done to offend him, because when Zuko steps out of the bedroom the airbender gives him a beaming grin. “Wow Zuko, you look awesome!” He says brightly.

Zuko has to admit that as annoying as the experience of shopping for formal robes was, the end result is pretty nice. His base layer robe is charcoal colored with snug sleeves, with the next layer a cool dark brown with wide bell sleeves, and the outer robe is a deep forest green, sleeveless and open-front to show off the silver embroidery at the neckline of the previous robe. Hip-high slits on each side of the two under robes and in the back of the outer robe, as well as a pair of black trousers underneath, allow for free movement, and some quick after-purchase alterations allow him to bring his full complement of throwing knives and Uncle’s dagger. His hair, now just long enough to brush the tops of his shoulders, is brushed to a high shine and pulled back into a short tail at the base of his neck, with his bangs brushed to cover his scar. It blocks what little peripheral vision he has left in that eye, but he can deal with that for one evening.

Kai would be absolutely _livid_ with jealousy, and Zuko has a new appreciation for missions involving formal wear. As long as he avoids eye contact with anyone, he would be just another spoiled and coddled Ba Sing Se aristocrat, and he can’t _wait_ to tell Uncle all about it. He’d appreciate the irony.

The door to the girls’ bedroom slides open, and Zuko smirks as Aang appears to swallow his tongue. Ba Sing Se high society fashions suit Katara right down to the embers, and Toph would look like a perfect little porcelain doll if not for the terrifying scowl on her face.

They say goodbye to Aang and Sokka and walk through the cool spring evening to the Earth King’s palace. The line for admittance to the party is incredibly long, and the time spent _waiting_ only to be turned away for a lack of proper invitation is annoying as fuck.

As they wander away from the line, an ostrich-horse carriage pulls up a short distance away, and a _very_ important and officious-looking man climbs out. Two Dai Li agents bow deeply to him as he does, and Katara gets the exact same scheming expression on her face that Sokka wears when the warrior’s thinking of ways to beat Zuko in sparring.

“New plan,” she whispers hurriedly. “Zuko, you sneak in by yourself and get to the ballroom. Toph and I will trick this guy into walking us in.”

There’s no time to object, so Zuko simply fades into the shadows with the help of his dark colored robes. He’s able to slip past the guards at the main entrance, who are more focused on the rapidly lengthening line of nobles waiting for admittance, and stride down the hallway to the ballroom like he belongs there.

The ballroom is massive and brightly lit, with a long banquet table down the center. It’s packed with nobles from Ba Sing Se’s Upper Ring, all decked out in their best and standing around with cups in their hands, and Zuko is uncomfortably reminded of the banquets Ozai and Azulon before him would throw. They were horribly boring events, and when he’d become Crown Prince, he’d been required to spend most of them at Ozai’s side, which had brought new meaning to the word _tension_. Zuko had wanted his father to love him and be proud of him for as long as he could remember, but he was also completely terrified of the man, and the banquets had forced him to spend hours in his father’s cold, dismissive presence.

Zuko grabs a glass of wine off of a waiter’s tray, drains half, and presses his back against the wall. He has to keep reminding himself that Ozai’s _not here_. There will be no dismissive silences, no crushing grips on his shoulder, no cruel whispers in his ears. No lashes with the fire whip afterwards. He’ll rescue the poor bastard the girls had conned into escorting them into the party, they’ll get an audience with the Earth King and tell him Sokka’s plan to invade the Fire Nation, and then they’ll go back to the guest house where Zuko will be free to shoot the stupid stubby tree in the back garden full of arrows until he’s calm again.

He sees Katara and Toph enter with the officious official, and drains his wineglass before heading over to them.

“Oh, here’s my boyfriend now!” Katara says brightly, and Zuko forces his face to go soft and mushy the way Kai’s does when he’s hanging around his girlfriend of the week. Katara beams at him and grabs his arm. “Lee, I’m so sorry we’re late! Dum lost our invitations! But this nice minister escorted us in! Such a gentleman!”

Toph takes his other arm, and with her hand hidden by her sleeve, taps on his inner elbow _Aliases. K's Kwa Mai. I'm her cousin._

“I am Long Feng, Cultural Minister,” the man says, bowing. Zuko bows back, and the girls release his arms.

_**Thank you for escorting my girlfriend and her cousin,**_ he signs. Katara grabs his arm again and giggles in a thoroughly disconcerting manner.

“I’m sorry, Lee literally talks with his hands, he said thanks for escorting us!” She says gaily. Zuko’s pretty sure she’s taking inspiration from Ty Lee’s ditziness for her “society persona”, and wishes he had another glass of wine.

“It was my pleasure,” Long Feng replies evenly, and something in the way he scans all three of them in the span of just seconds makes the hairs on the back of Zuko’s neck stand up.

_“…Cultural Minister.”_

_“The Dai Li are the protectors of our cultural heritage.”_

_Two Dai Li agents bow to Long Feng as he exits his carriage outside the palace._

“You okay Sparky? Your heartbeat just went whack,” Toph asks quietly.

_Long Feng is Dai Li,_ he taps on her hand, which is wrapped around his arm again as they move through the ballroom.

“Shit, are you sure?”

_Pretty sure._

“What’s wrong?” Katara asks on Zuko’s other side. Her serene smile doesn’t twitch, but Zuko can hear the tension in her voice.

“Lee thinks our new friend is a member of the creepy hat club,” Toph hisses. “C’mon, I can feel Aang’s footsteps this way.”

Aang and Sokka have found their way inside on their own, and a tiny _(tiny)_ bit of the tension leaks out of Zuko now that the squad’s back together.

It comes back when Aang blows his own cover.

_I really need to teach him what stealth means,_ Zuko muses with a sigh, as Sokka hisses at the Avatar to make a distraction while he looks for the Earth King.

And then something hard and smooth snaps over his mouth and grips both of his upper arms, and he's pulled against two bodies. Nearly faster than he can track, he's whisked away to an opulently decorated library lit with green glowing crystals. A fireplace contains a roaring green fire, and Zuko can see the green crystals interspersed with the firewood.

The girls and Sokka get shoved inside at the same time Zuko does, and it’s only a minute or so later that Aang walks in with Long Feng.

Sokka barely waits for the door to close before he speaks. “Why won’t you let us talk to the King? We have information that could defeat the Fire Nation!”

Long Feng has seated himself on a backless chair with his back to the fireplace, facing the squad. Probably to make it hard for them to get a good look at him, backlit as he is, while he can see their every twitch in the full green light of the fire. However, Zuko’s eyes are adapted to seeing through bright flames, and he can see the tightening of the man’s jaw before his face smooths back into impassivity.

“The Earth King has no time to get involved with political squabbles and the day to day minutia of military activities,” he intones, stroking his chin.

“This could be the most important thing he’s ever heard,” Aang pleads.

Long Feng’s icy green eyes narrow just slightly, and his shoulders tighten. “What’s most important to His Royal Majesty is maintaining the _cultural_ heritage of Ba Sing Se,” he says firmly, gesturing with his arm as though teaching particularly stupid schoolchildren. “All his duties relate to issuing decrees on such matters.” He leans forward aggressively, pinning the entire squad with a sharp glare. “It’s _my_ job to oversee the rest of the city’s resources,” he smirks, “including the military.”

_Oh fucking rhino-shit,_ Zuko thinks blankly, and Sokka stiffens beside him.

“So the King is just a figurehead!” Katara says, dawning realization in her voice.

“He’s your puppet!” Toph shouts angrily.

Zuko watches in horrified fascination as all trace of aggression disappears from Long Feng as though wiped away by a cloth. He holds up his hands and shakes his head as he says, “oh no, no. His Majesty is an _icon_ , a god to his people. He can’t sully his hands with the hourly changes of an endless war.”

Maybe it’s the part of him raised in an absolute monarchy, but Zuko can’t imagine any reason why a leader of any kind would simply _ignore a global century-long war in which they are losing more territory every day_ even if military oversight _isn't_ one of their duties. _Unless…_

He's derailed from his thoughts by Sokka stepping forward and pleading, "But we found out about a solar eclipse that will leave the Fire Nation defenseless! You could lead an invasion––"

"Enough! I don't want to hear your ridiculous plan!" Long Feng's voice cracks through the air like a whip, and he flows to his feet as smoothly and effortlessly as a waterbender. The movement is so sudden and quick that Zuko barely has time to flinch. The man isn't tall, certainly not more than a head or so taller than Zuko himself, but his presence fills the room in a way that reminds Zuko uncomfortably of Ozai as he leans aggressively towards Sokka. Sokka flinches hard and backs away, shoulders hunched, and Zuko kind of wants to kill this man for putting that expression on his brother's face.

Long Feng leans back and looks down his nose at the squad, continuing to speak in an implacable voice. "It is the strict policy of Ba Sing Se that the War not be mentioned within the Walls. Constant news of an escalating war will throw the citizens of Ba Sing Se into a state of panic. Our economy would be ruined, our peaceful way of life––our traditions––would disappear." His words echo through the room like thunder, building a wall as tall and strong as the ones encircling the City. "In silencing talk of conflict, Ba Sing Se remains a peaceful, orderly utopia: the last one on Earth."

Zuko's fists tremble at his sides, causing his knuckles to ache.

Katara's voice lashes out like her water whip. "You can't keep the truth from all these people. They _have_ to know!"

"I'll tell them!" Aang declares, stepping forward boldly. "I'll make sure everyone knows!"

Long Feng glides in front of him, and Zuko fingers one of his knives under his sleeve as the dictator looks down his nose at the Avatar. "Until now, you've been treated as our honored guest," the man states, voice rumbling like the beginnings of a rockslide. Zuko grips his knife tighter, and palms a second in his other hand as Long Feng bends at the waist to look a glaring Aang dead in the eye. "But from now on, you will be watched every moment by Dai Li agents. If you mention the War to _anyone_ , you will be _expelled_ from the City." Zuko's heart thunders in his ears. Long Feng straightens and turns on his heel, gliding back to face the fireplace.

"I understand you're looking for your bison," he comments. "It would be quite a shame if you were not able to complete your quest."

_Fuck you too, asshole,_ Zuko thinks savagely, replacing his knives. At least now he's reasonably certain that whether or not the Dai Li actually have Appa, they're definitely not above using him to keep Aang in line.

Creepy hat _bastards_.

The Chief Creepy Hat Bastard calls in Joo Dee, but she's not the Joo Dee that's been dogging their heels for the past week. Her clothes and hairpiece are the same, and she's got the same _super fucking creepy_ squinty-eyed smile, and Agni save him, she's even got all of the same body language tells as the other one, but she's a completely different woman and it's freaking Zuko the fuck out. He suddenly wonders _exactly_ what kind of methods Long Feng's using to "silence talk of conflict".

They're politely but perfunctorily escorted back to their guest house, and Sokka immediately throws himself onto a floor pillow with a frustrated groan.

"Well that was _entirely pointless_!" He sighs loudly.

Zuko vents his own frustration by taking his throwing knives out of their hiding places one by one and throwing them so that they form a straight line along the railing of the lounge. He wants desperately to talk to Uncle, but he's also not sure if it's worth leading the Creepy Hat Bastards to him.

"Well, at least now we know why we were being stonewalled," Katara says reasonably, although there's tension in her shoulders as she scrubs her makeup off with a cloth.

Zuko throws his last knife and stabs Uncle's dagger into the top of the table. **_If they don't have Appa yet, they'll definitely be on the lookout for him now,_** he signs, jaw clenching in frustration and hands moving sharp and fast. **_And there's no way we'd succeed in storming the Earth King's palace without him. Trying to sneak in with just Aang is pretty much asking to be killed on the spot, we wouldn't have any way to escape if we got cornered. We need to find the Dai Li headquarters, that's the only place L-O-N-G F-E-N-G will keep him. He's too much of a control freak to keep him in the city proper and risk rumors of a giant furry monster reaching us._**

"Maybe now that Long Feng knows that we know he's keeping tabs on us, he'll stop having creepy ladies following us everywhere," Toph grumbles. "Was it just me, or was that a different creepy lady than our usual?"

"No, it definitely was a different creepy lady," Sokka says. "Zuko, what do you think? You seemed super wigged out by her, and I know your crazy Fire Nation ninja training lets you read people like books. What's her deal?"

Zuko sighs silently, stripping off his robes until he's just in his trousers and undershirt and yanking the tie out of his hair. _**I'm honestly not sure,**_ he signs finally. _**It was fucking**_ _ **weird. In terms of body language, they were nearly identical, right down to the creepy smile. That's basically impossible––people can share mannerisms, both consciously and unconsciously, but not even identical twins raised in the same family together their entire lives have all the same body language. You'd have to actually train yourself to match someone else's body language, and it's never going to be completely perfect, just by virtue of being a different person. But the two J-O-O D-E-E… I haven't the slightest clue. There's gotta be something L-O-N-G F-E-N-G's doing to them, to strip them of so much individuality.**_

Aang and Katara look sickened, while Sokka just nods with grim resignation as he interprets for Toph.

"This place fucking _sucks_ ," Toph sighs.

**Author's Note:**

> Next time: **R and R**


End file.
